In recent years, electric connectors having numerous terminals are being used in the field of automobiles and the like, and are continually become more and more advanced. With an electric connector having numerous terminals, a large force is necessary to mate together connectors and release the connection. Therefore, in the field of automobiles and the like, a lever-type connector to mate with and release from a mating connector utilizing effect of boosting by a lever is used.
By way of example, a lever is mounted to a plug housing of a lever type connector (for example, holding a female contact) so as to be rotated between a mating start position and a mating end position, and a cam pin is provided on a receptacle housing of a mating connector (for example, holding a male contact). The housings are shallowly mated with each other with the lever being held in the mating start position, and thus the cam pin is inserted into a cam groove provided in a slider that linearly reciprocates as the lever is turned. The lever is then turned to the mating end position. Thus, the housings are mated with each other by cam action caused by engagement between the cam groove and the cam pin, and contacts (or terminal fittings) of the connectors are connected to each other. The term “rotation” refers to both clockwise and counterclockwise turns performed by the lever, and the term “turn” refers to either of the clockwise and counterclockwise turns.
When the lever type connector is mated with the mating connector, prying (also referred to as inclined mating) may occur such that the lever type connector (female connector) is inserted into the mating connector (male connector) in an inclined manner. Then, the cam pin does not properly enter the cam groove but is brought into contact with (rides on) a part other than the cam groove in the slider in some cases. This causes difficulty in rotation of the lever, but if the lever is forced to be turned toward the mating end position, a strong force may be applied to the cam pin to damage the mating connector. A connector using a thin housing because of a size reduction demanded of a connector in recent years together with numerous terminals may be highly likely to be damaged.
As means for preventing improper connection due to prying, a protrusion for preventing improper connection has been provided integrally with a housing (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-357938). However, merely providing the protrusion for preventing improper connection sometimes cannot prevent improper mating.